Texans know about lines, including the sword-drawn line Col. William Barrett Travis allegedly scraped through soon-to-be-bloody Alamo sand to distinguish the brave from the not-so-brave. These days a three-judge federal panel meeting a few blocks from the Texas shrine is examining in tedious detail a set of lines that won't be erased by an early-morning breeze. They're drawn, not in sand, but on computers.

Since these lines will determine for years to come how Texans choose their elected representatives, the state's politically invested are fighting almost as ferociously as the two armies that clashed at the Alamo. Unfortunately, the fight will last a good deal longer than the 13 days it took the Alamo to fall.

A little background: The protections in the Voting Rights Act, now diluted after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, along with the guarantees of the 14th and 15th Amendments, are supposed to ensure that minority voters have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, even in elections where the candidates do not necessarily look like them.

When the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature in 2011 and 2013 drew up redistricting plans for the Texas House and for Congress, there's strong evidence that lawmakers cemented in GOP dominance by diluting the voting strength of black and Hispanic voters. Their modus operandi was to either parcel out the minority population among several districts or to pack minority voters into a particular district so that they wouldn't threaten Anglo voting strength elsewhere.

There's a good chance the court will find for the plaintiffs, who include minority and civil rights organizations.

The state, in defending the indefensible, is wasting time and the taxpayers' money - $3.9 million, in fact. That's how much Texans will end up paying for Attorney General Greg Abbott's aggressive defense of the Republican-drawn maps.

Those same Republicans could have saved a lot of time by drawing up fair districts in the first place. Alas, given the Lone Star State's swiftly changing demographics, the temptation to seal in Anglo-based Republican strength may simply have been too great for political mortals to resist. They'll likely be paying for their redistricting hubris.

In addition, Abbott could have saved time and taxpayer's money by going straight to the U.S. Department of Justice for what's known as pre-clearance. The Justice Department is required to respond within 90 days, whereas the court process will wind its tortuous way through a full federal trial in D.C., an appeals process and ultimately to the Supreme Court. The Legislature is likely to be back in special session in 2015 to redraw the lines.

Some day, as we noted not long ago, Texas lawmakers will be brave enough to concede that legislative control over redistricting is an implicit conflict of interest that undermines the effectiveness of representative government. Other states have made that concession, and their citizens are better represented because of it. Meanwhile, testimony in San Antonio drones on about lines, and Texas lawmakers run like Moses Rose from redistricting fairness.